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Sunday, August 07, 2016

Rocket Science

I have always taken myself a little bit too seriously. This included my studies. I can remember clearly one of my first panic related study events. My two older brothers trying to calm me down about a Geography test I had the next day. I must have been about 11 or 12 years old, and didn't understand why the information wasn't sticking in my head. I didn't like that panic, and so was a diligent student to keep those wolves well fed. Starting early enough meant I would feel okay.

Most Industrial Style education seems to be about the panic. By the time I got to university, it felt like the point was to give students too much information to get through, so that they always felt like they were drowning. The Professors didn't speak to each other, and always prioritised their subject over the others. Starting early didn't keep the wolves full.

When the panic of not understanding started, the only thing I was able to tell myself was that I was studying Rocket Science. I wasn't pushing the boundaries of human thought. What I was doing had been done before. There was a well mapped out path from one thought to another, and I just had to do the work. Just put one foot, one thought, in front of the other and keep on plodding.

One of the benefits of being human is we don't need to learn lessons ourselves. We can learn from the paths others have tried if we are prepared to listen. We can learn from the wars between Catholics and Protestants. There have been lots of Civil Wars. Lots of Civil Wars have ended. The 'same-same' groups we now belong to are mostly made up of the most entrenched conflicts of the past. The Aztecs and the Maori didn't have beef. The English and the Irish did. Pakistan and India do. China and Japan do. The warring tribes of the Arabian peninsula did, before Muhammad came up with the world's first constitution.

We can learn about Human Rights from a long history since Cyrus the Great of Persia and some of the first steps he laid in the first known 'Bill of Rights' - the Cyrus Cylinder. We can read Hobbes thoughts are whether or not it is worth taking up arms against a Government.

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Swart Donkey

Swart means Black (my surname) in Afrikaans. I am proud of my African roots but am a global citizen who believes that we should look to define ourselves collectively by the great things we can achieve. I believe in freedom of people and ideas and that we are moving towards a more friendly, happy world. Like a Donkey, I can be noisy, stubborn and ignorant - but like a Donkey I am willing to put effort in to change. The focus of this blog is happiness and learning - so basically, it is a blog on everything.